ABSTRACT
The dragon is a legendary figure in many cultures. From the dragon in Beowulf to J. R. R. Tolkien’s writings on Beowulf, his version of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun and to his own Smaug in The Hobbit, the dragon is a monstrous serpent who lives underground, flies at night or twilight, and embodies and exhales fire and/or venom. The earth dragon guards these treasures with volcanic fire within the earth. Swamp dragons found in the legend of St George and the dragon and in Milton's Paradise Lost function culturally and environmentally in a similar way to earth dragons. Humans steal new life from the fertile swamps/dragon, portray swamp dragons as evil monsters, heap their guilt for doing both on to them as scapegoats and then kill them and drain swamps to expiate their guilt. The serpentine dragon is another fire-breathing monster who lives in a tomb, and so is a creature of both death and the underworld.
